text: Co-treatment of septage at wastewater treatment plants may be considered where the volume of septage removed from on-site facilities is small, as will be the case in situations where most households have access to sewerage. However, the high strength of septage and fecal sludge means that relatively small volumes of both can have a large impact on the organic, suspended solids, and nitrogen loads on a wastewater treatment plant. Possible consequences include an increase in the volume of screenings and grit requiring removal; increased odour emission at headworks; increased scum and sludge accumulation rates; and increased organic loading, leading to overloading and process failure, and the potential for increased odour and foaming in aeration tanks. Because of their partly digested nature, septage and fecal sludge will usually degrade at a slower rate than municipal wastewater. Therefore, their presence is likely to have an adverse impact on the efficacy of treatment processes. The intermittent nature of fecal sludge and septage loading can also amplify the problems identified above.
  Despite these possible drawbacks, wastewater treatment facilities with spare capacity are a potential resource to be investigated. Even where co-treatment is not an option, existing wastewater treatment plants may provide land in strategic locations, close to areas of demand for septage management services. Separate preliminary treatment and solids-liquid separation facilities should always be provided for septage/fecal sludge. Solids-liquid separation will reduce both the overall load and the proportion of digested material in the liquid fraction and will thus lessen the possibility that it will disrupt wastewater treatment processes. Separated solids can be treated along with the sludge produced in sedimentation tanks during the wastewater treatment process.